1. Field of the Invention
The present invention-relates to a fuel-injection method and an apparatus therefor; in which fuel delivered through a common rail is charged from injectors into combustion chambers, and further relates to a process for defining the beginning of pressure drop in the common rail, which is applicable to the common-rail, fuel-injection system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a typical fuel-injection control for engines such as diesel engines, a common-rail, fuel-injection system is conventionally known, in which the fuel injected is highly intensified in pressure and the fuel-injection characteristics such as a timing and quantity of fuel injected per cycle are adequately controlled in accordance with the engine operating conditions. On most common-rail, fuel-injection systems, the fuel pressurized at a preselected pressure is stored in a fuel supply line common to the injectors and the consequent stored fuel is injected from each injector into the associated combustion chamber. In order to inject the pressurized fuel at the individual fuel injector with the optimal fuel delivery condition for the engine operation, a controller unit regulates the fuel pressure in the common rail and the control valves each installed in the individual fuel injector.
A conventional common-rail, fuel-injection system will be explained below with reference to FIG. 7. The fuel delivery to injectors 1 is carried out through a common rail 2 and injection lines 3, each of which is a part of the fuel-flow line. A fuel feed pump 6 draws fuel from a fuel tank 4 through a fuel filter 5 and forces it under a preselected pressure to a fuel-supply pump 8 through a fuel line 7. The fuel-supply pump 8 is of, for example, a fuel-supply plunger pump driven by the engine, which intensifies the fuel to a high pressure determined depending on the engine operating conditions, and supplies the pressurized fuel into the common rail 2 through another fuel line 9. The fuel, thus supplied, is stored in the common rail 2 at the preselected high pressure and forced to the injectors 1 from the common rail 2. The injectors 1 are provided in compliance with the type of engines (the number of the cylinders) and controlled with a controller unit 12 of an electronic control unit to thereby inject the fuel, supplied from the common rail 2, to the associated combustion chambers with an adequate timing and metered quantity of fuel. The injection pressure of the fuel sprayed out of the injectors 1 is substantially equal with the pressure of fuel stored in the common rail 2, that is, the common rail pressure, which is thus regulated in order to control the injection pressure.
The fuel relieved from the fuel-supply pump 8 is allowed to flow back the fuel tank 4 through a fuel-return line 10. The unconsumed fuel remaining in each injector 1 out of the fuel fed through the injection lines 3 into the injectors 1 may return to the fuel tank 4 through a fuel-recovery line 11. The controller unit 12 is applied with various signals of sensors monitoring the engine operating conditions, such as a cylinder identifying sensor and a crankshaft position sensor for detecting the engine rpm Ne, an accelerator pedal sensor for detecting the depression Acc of an accelerator pedal, an engine coolant temperature sensor, an intake manifold pressure sensor and the like. The controller unit 12 may regulate the fuel-injection characteristics, that is, the injection timing and the quantity of fuel injected out of the injectors 1, depending on the applied signals, to thereby allow the engine to operate as fuel-efficient as possible. Moreover, the controller unit 12 is applied with a detected single as to a common-rail pressure reported from a pressure sensor 13 installed in the common rail 2. Injection of fuel out of the injectors 1 consumes the fuel in the common rail 2, causing the pressure drop in the common-rail pressure, at which the controller unit 12 regulates the discharge of the fuel-supply pump 8 so as to keep the common-rail pressure constant.
As described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 60020/1985, the prior common-rail, fuel-injection system controls the fuel-injection pressure to the desired value in accordance with the engine operating conditions, while calculating the fuel-injection characteristics, that is, the quantity of fuel metered to be injected, which quantity is defined by the pressure and duration for injection per cycle, and the timing of fuel injection, in compliance with the engine operating conditions, thereby achieving the fuel-injection characteristics optimal for the engine operating conditions. The common-rail pressure defining the injection pressure is intensified by the fuel-supply pump, while regulated to a desired injection pressure by means of a pressure regulator valve.
In the prior common-rail, fuel-injection system, the controller unit applies the command pulses for the injection command signals to the solenoid-operated valves, which are provided in the injectors, each to each injector. The solenoid-operated valves energized with the command pulses lift the needle valves to open the injection holes at the nozzle tips of the injectors 1, resulting in allowing the fuel charges into the combustion chambers. However, a time-lag is usually present, spanning from the time when the controller unit issues the command pulse to be signaled to the solenoid-operated valve to the time when the fuel is actually injected out of the nozzle holes of the injectors. Such time lag arises from a response delay inherent in the driving circuit, that is, a delay spanning from the time of signaling the command pulse from the controller unit to the solenoid to the time of the actual energization of the solenoid, and a mechanical delay in the injectors, during which the needle valve is made to lift after the energization of the solenoid to thereby allow the fuel injection out of the injector. Moreover, even if the timing when the command pulses issued from the controller unit turn xe2x80x9conxe2x80x9d is precisely maintained at constant, every injector has tended to vary or scatter in the timing of the beginning of the fuel injection owing to characteristic difference in the individual injectors, aging or the like.
In most conventional fuel-injection systems dealing with the problem as described just above, the time lag is considered to be constant so that the scattering for every injector in the time lag is ignored. Accordingly, the optimal combustion of fuel can not be appreciated due to characteristic difference in the individual injectors, aging or the like. This results in the major problems in which the exhaust gas control becomes inferior and vibration occurs in the engine owing to the difference in combustion timing among the individual cylinders.
In contrast, disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 210174/1996 is a method of detecting fuel-injection timing and an apparatus therefor, which has for its object to determine accurately the fuel-injection timing in the diesel engines. According to this prior art, the fuel pressure is monitored at a fuel line connecting a fuel injection pump with fuel-injection nozzles, while a pressure drop greater than the preselected value is detected, which happens first after the monitored fuel pressure reaches a design high pressure. The initiation of the first pressure drop is identified as the timing of the beginning of the fuel injection.
Unlike the common-rail fuel-injection system, nevertheless, the method and apparatus for detecting fuel-injection timing, disclosed in the above publication, belong to a fuel-injection system including a fuel distributor pump to meter and direct fuel to the injectors, or an inline fuel injection pump.
On the other hand, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 47137/1998 discloses therein a method of detecting fuel-injection timing and an apparatus therefor in a common-rail, fuel-injection system. A pressure sensor in the common rail detects the timing when the pressure drop happens in the common rail pressure after the fuel injection out of the injectors. The actual timing of the beginning of the fuel injection is calculated, in compliance with the timing of pressure drop, by going backwards by the length of time during which the pressure waves are transmitted from the injection nozzles to the common rail. The deviation of the resultant actual timing from the desired timing of the beginning of the fuel injection is stored for compensating the desired timing of the beginning of the next fuel injection. That is to say, the above citation discloses the conception of compensating the desired timing of the start of the fuel injection with the detected timing of the start of pressure drop in the common rail pressure.
However, since the pressure drop in the common rail pressure due to the fuel injection is normally accompanied by pulsative waves, it is actually very hard to detect accurately the timing of the beginning of the pressure drop in the common rail pressure. In this regard, the above-cited Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 47137/1998 discloses no teaching of the specific measures about how to detect the timing of the beginning of the pressure drop of the common rail pressure.
Based on the recognition that defining closely the timing of the beginning of pressure drop is critical for accurate control of the timing of the initiation of the fuel injection on the individual injectors in the common-rail, fuel-injection system, the inventors have already proposed a method of defining accurately the timing of the beginning of the pressure drop in the common rail pressure, which is explained in co-pending senior Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 101149/1999, and further confirmed the results satisfactory to some degree. Nevertheless, there is still the room for improvement and, therefore, how to define strictly the timing of the beginning of pressure drop is the major subject for accurately controlling the timing of the initiation of the fuel injection on the individual injectors in the common-rail, fuel-injection system.
A primary object of the present invention is to overcome the problems in the prior art as having been described above, and to provide a fuel-injection method and an apparatus therefor and further provide a method of defining a timing of the beginning of pressure drop in a common rail pressure, which is suitably applicable to the fuel-injection method. The present invention is made by detecting the common rail pressure with paying attention to the fact that the common rail pressure falls in accordance with the quantity of fuel injected out of the injectors on every fuel-injection, irrespective of the scattering on the fuel-injection timings of the individual injector, and finding with accuracy the actual timing of the beginning of the fuel injection in the injectors, depending on the timing at which the common rail pressure starts to fall down.
The present invention is concerned with a fuel-injection method for an engine, comprising the steps of; storing a common rail with a fuel delivered by the means of a fuel-supply pump, injecting the fuel from the common rail into combustion chambers through discharge orifices formed in injectors that are actuated with injection command signals, making a decision about a basic desired injection timing in compliance with engine operating conditions at present by using a basic desired injection timing data which is previously defined in accordance with the engine operating conditions, finding an injection lag spanning from an output timing of the injection command signal to an injection timing at which the fuel injection is made to start, by a function previously defined of a variable of a time at which a pressure drop starts in the common rail pressure at least after the start of the fuel injection, and making a decision about the output of the injection command signal in accordance with the basic desired injection timing and the injection lag.
The present invention is further concerned with a fuel-injection apparatus for an engine, comprising; a common rail for storing therein a fuel forced by the action of a fuel-supply pump, injectors having discharge orifices through which the fuel from the common rail is injected into combustion chambers, means for monitoring engine operating conditions, a pressure sensor for monitoring a pressure in the common rail, and a controller unit for deciding a basic desired injection timing in compliance with the engine operating conditions at present by using a basic desired injection timing data which is previously defined in accordance with the engine operating conditions detected with the engine condition monitoring means, and further for applying the injectors with the injecting command signal in accordance with the basic desired injection timing, wherein the controller unit finds an injection lag spanning from the output timing of the injection command signal to an injection timing at which the fuel injection is made to start, by a function previously defined of a variable of a time at which a pressure drop starts in the common rail pressure at least after the start of the fuel injection, and makes a decision about the output of the injection command signal in accordance with the basic desired injection timing and the injection lag.
In one aspect of the present invention, a fuel-injection method is disclosed, wherein the output timing of the injection command signal for the recent fuel injection in the injectors is decided at a time going backwards by the injection lag found at the fuel injection last time in the injectors from the basic desired injection timing.
In another aspect of the present invention, a fuel-injection method is disclosed, wherein the timing of the start of the pressure drop in the common rail pressure is defined as a time at which a difference between a pressure data and an approximate straight line is the largest value, the pressure data being obtained by filtering process of waveforms of the detected common rail pressure, and the approximate straight line being calculated, with respect to a curve represented on coordinates of the time and pressure data, by the use of the pressure data spanning from a preselected time before the pressure drop in the common rail pressure to a time of at least the first smallest value after the start of the pressure drop.
In another aspect of the present invention, the start of pressure drop in the common rail pressure may be given by filtering the common rail pressure through a low-pass filer to thereby obtain pressure data, and then approximating a curve of pressure variation during the pressure drop on coordinates of the time and the pressure data by the least square method to thereby obtain an approximate straight line of the curve during the pressure drop till the pressure data becomes the first smallest value. As a result, the start of pressure drop in the common pressure is defined as the time on the time-axis at which the difference between the approximate straight line and the pressure data becomes the largest value. According to the present invention, thus, the time of the time-axis at which the difference between the pressure data becomes the largest value, or the time at which the pressure data exceeds the approximate straight line with the largest deviation during a length of time till the first smallest after the start of the pressure drop in the common rail pressure, is regarded as the timing of the start of the pressure drop in the common rail pressure. Moreover, the timing of the start of pressure drop in the common rail pressure defined as described above can be safely applied in practice for finding experimentally an injection lag between the injection command timing and the fuel-injection timing.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the injection lag about from the output timing of the injection command signal to the fuel-injection timing is individually calculated for each of the injectors. The difference for every cylinder, or the difference in distance between the discharge orifice of the injector and the pressure sensor for the common rail pressure, may affect the length of time during which the pressure variation transmits. It will be understood that the difference for every cylinder included the individual scattering of the injectors, injection lines and the like.
The present invention is further concerned with a method of defining a start of pressure drop in a common rail pressure, comprised of the steps of; filtering processing waveforms of the detected common rail pressure to thereby obtain pressure data, calculating an approximate straight line of a curve of pressure data variation on coordinates of the time and pressure data by making use of the pressure data spanning from a preselected time before the pressure drop to a time of at least the first smallest value after the start of the pressure drop, and defining a time, at which a difference between a pressure data and an approximate straight line is the largest, as the timing of the start of the pressure drop in the common rail pressure.
It is preferred that the preselected time before the pressure drop is the timing of issuing the fuel-injection command signal. Moreover, the common rail pressure may be detected based on the output timing of the injection command signal or may be detected dependent on the degree of stability on the common rail pressure before signaling of the command pulse. The approximate straight line may be calculated by the use of the least square method. In either case, the present invention makes it possible to define accurately the timing of the start of pressure drop.
As apparent from the foregoing description, the present invention develops to find the injection lag between the output timing of the injection command signal and the fuel-injection timing by a previously defined function, depending on the start of pressure drop in the common rail pressure after the fuel-injection, thereby making a decision about the output timing of the subsequent injection command signal in accordance with both the basic desired injection timing and the injection lag. That is to say, the length of time spanning from the output of the injection command signal to the start of the actual fuel injection, or the injection lag, may be found by the previously defined function, dependent on the timing of the start of pressure drop in the common rail pressure, which is calculated based on the pressure data of the common rail pressure detected at the pressure sensor. The output timing of the injection command signal to be applied to the injectors is defined based both of the injection lag found as described above and the basic desired injection timing found as the optimal injection timing in accordance with the engine operating conditions such as accelerator pedal depression and the engine rpm or the like. Accordingly, the actual fuel-injection may begin at the basic desired injection timing designed previously so as to help ensure the most suitable exhaust gases and engine output performances, irrespective of variations in the injectors such as aging in the response to the injection command signals and the scattering in fuel-injection timing for every injector, thereby resulting in improving the exhaust gases and engine output performances.
In contrast, on the prior fuel-injection system in which the injection lag between the output timing of the fuel-injection command signal and the actual fuel-injection timing is considered to be constant without paying attention to the scattering in the injection lag, even if the injection command signals have been initially designed so as to signal at the optimal timing, it may be possible that the start of the fuel-injection becomes out of the optimal timing owing to the aging in the injection lag and, in addition, the individual injector has usually the scattering or deviation in the start timing of the fuel-injection. For the reasons as described above, the vibration and inferior exhaust gas control have occurred in the prior engines owing to the scattering in the timing of the combustion sequentially carried out in the individual cylinder of an engine, to say nothing of the individual engine. Nevertheless, the fuel-injection method the apparatus according to the present invention makes it possible to achieve the actual fuel injection at the optimal basic desired injection timing, resulting in preventing the vibration and inferior exhaust gas control.
Moreover, according another aspect of the present invention, the start of the fuel injection may be decided by processing the information detected at the common rail pressure sensor that is conventionally incorporated in the common-rail system and, therefore, there is no need of developing a novel pressure sensor for making a decision about the start timing of the fuel injection. Unlike the fuel-injection system having the distributor injection pump or inline fuel injection pump, the number of pressure sensors is not necessarily the same as the number of injection lines connecting the fuel injection pump with the injectors, so that no increase of the number of the parts may be necessary, with resulting in cost saving. Moreover, detecting the common rail pressure in the common-rail, fuel-injection system is more concurrently susceptible to the large changes in the common rail fuel pressure due to the engine operating conditions, compared with another prior system in which the information effective for detecting is obtained by comparing the pressure in the injection lines connecting the fuel-injection pump and the injectors to the a design pressure threshold.
The fuel-injection method and apparatus therefor of the present invention adopt the method of defining the start of pressure drop in the common rail pressure comprised of the steps of calculating an approximate straight line of a curve of the pressure variation of the common rail pressure after filtering by making use of the pressure data till a time of at least the first smallest value on the curve, and defining a time, at which a difference between the pressure data and the approximate straight line is the largest, as the timing of the start of the pressure drop in the common rail pressure. This makes the load on the DSP lighter and the influence on the quantity of fuel charge more reduced, compared with the senior co-pending application in Japan.
Other objects and features of the present invention will be more apparent to those skilled in the art on consideration of the accompanying drawings and following specification wherein are disclosed preferred embodiments of the invention with the understanding that such variations, modifications and elimination of parts may be made therein as fall within the scope of the appended claims without departing from the spirit of the invention.